IN OUR SCHOOLS: Former Peace Corps teacher now works for U.S. senator By Paulette Tobin Herald Staff Writer

On Christmas Day 2000, the Herald ran a front-page story about Warwick, N.D., native Matthew Wallace, a UND graduate who was teaching English to sixth-graders in Romania through his work in the Peace Corps.

This December, he's interning in the Washington, D.C. office of Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., but Wallace has his eye on a career that could take him abroad again.

Wallace, then 23, joined the Peace Corps in June 2000, finished in June 2002 and then spent six weeks traveling in Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland before returning home.

For a time, he struggled with what to do next.

"I think that readjusting to life in the U.S. was as difficult as it was in Romania," he said. Wallace worked in Long Beach, Calif., for eight months, then returned to North Dakota and in April began working in Grand Forks with the American Language Academy teaching English as second language.

"I have always wanted to work with an organization focusing on issues such as refugee settlement, international health or development," he said. That's when it occurred to him that taking a political internship could help him accomplish his goal. He began working in Dorgan's office in August and will finish in mid-January.

"Being in Washington has been amazing," he said, for the knowledge and understanding he's gained of local, national and international issues.

Wallace said he regards his time in Romania as give-and-take: he spent two years helping the people of Aiud, and they dedicated two years to teaching him. He has kept in touch with his school director and his wife, and their conversations frequently roll around to the experiences they shared.

One of those experiences was a book drive, in which the Herald's Teen Page teamed with National Honor Society members from high schools in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks to collect and ship more than 1,000 books to the Romanian school in which Wallace was teaching.

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Story Source: Grand Forks Herald

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Romania; Congress

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